5 JULY 1957, Page 15

THE MULTI-RACIAL IDEAL

THE Commonwealth Conference is ending, and, despite a certain weakening of the delegations due to the Cana- dian elections and the absence of the Prime Minister of Ceylon, it has gone some way towards repairing the damage done by the Suez adventure. By all accounts, Mr. Macmillan has been more of a success in the role of primes inter pares than were either of his two predecessors, and apartheid and Kashmir gave less trouble than was expected. The same week which saw the conclusion of the Nigerian constitutional con- ference also saw Mr. Louw of South Africa sitting at the same table with an African Prime Minister with whom he would have been unwilling to share the same bus in his own country. Moreover, Mr. Nehru has been rumoured to be in a particu- larly benign mood—a fact not without its connection with India's need for a sterling loan.

Yet these favourable portents should not make anyone accept the official bromide that all is well with the Common- wealth. The two topics that caused dispute were disarmament and Suez, and it is highly significant that the line of division separated the Afro-Asian members from the rest. For Mr. Nehru the Western line in the Middle East is quite evidently wrong, and Pakistani approval in however modified a form is more likely to be motivated by their dislike of Indian atti- tudes than anything else. As to disarmament, Indian insist- ence on a high moral approach to nuclear weapons necessarily finds far more of a hearing among Asians and Africans, who do not regard the USSR with anything like the same distrust as the West does, and who remember that the atom bomb was first used on an Asian people. * * * However, the importance of such disputes within the Commonwealth does not lie so much in their subject-matter as in the fact that they point clearly enough to an evolution which is accelerating every year. India, Ceylon, Pakistan and Ghana will shortly be joined by Malaya and the West Indies, while Nigeria's accession to dominion status will probably take place at the same time. We are in fact rapidly approaching a situation in which the Afro-Asian bloc—with whom the West Indies might be expected to side—will out- number the rest, and, although Commonwealth Conferences do not decide anything by votes, this fact is bound to influence future policies to an extent which can hardly be foreseen. No doubt it is recognition of this which has caused Mr. Menzies, the Prime Minister of Australia, to favour the plan or a small 'white' Commonwealth which was mentioned in a recent speech by the Australian High Commissioner in London. Such a plan could presumably expect the enthusias- tic support of South Africa, but would hardly get much from anyone else. Indeed , the idea of a restriction of the Common- wealth to people of "- - same racial background would seem a complete abandonment of everything that makes it a useful factor in world affairs today.

For, after all, it is neither as an economic unit nor as a military power that the Commonwealth is important. Imperial preference is a dead duck in spite of Mr. Diefen- baker, while, if the forces of the various Commonwealth nations are theoretically all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men, they are only likely to be available for the execution of a united policy to the most limited degree. What makes the importance of the Commonwealth is its moral status in the world, and that moral status is very largely due to its being the only Western political organisation to throw a bridge between the European peoples and their ex-subjects of Africa and Asia.

The Commonwealth is the only Western answer so far produced to the Soviet 'nationalities' policy, that master- stroke of Lenin's which gave Russia a flying start in dealing with peoples emerging from colonialism. To counter the Messianic creed of Communism something more is required than a simple assertion of innocence on the part of the West. American protestations that they at least have never been colonialists will be ridiculed by Marxists who know, or think they know, that economic power is the basis of political domination. On the other hand, the British transfer of power in India and Ceylon evidently made a profound impression, while in a country like Malaya the prospect of independence has proved the most effective weapon against the Communist guerrillas. The Commonwealth has, in fact, something far more tangible to offer Asians and Africans than anything else on the Western side. In it is contained the dynamic heritage of European liberalism.

One consequence of this is that we must strive at all costs to keep the multi-racial character of the Commonwealth. If this means offending South Africa, then South Africa must be offended. Moreover, consideration must continue to be given to Commonwealth views in the formation of British foreign policy even when those views are inconvenient. British politi- cal parties will also have to restrain themselves in various directions. The Labour Party will have to try not to behave as though they had a monopoly of good intentions towards peoples still evolving towards independence, while the Con- servatives must learn not to indulge in schadenfreude at the expense of new Commonwealth members. Government in the new countries of Africa and Asia is not perfect; but neither is it anywhere else. If British statesmen- act with wisdom and deliberation, then the Commonwealth will be preserved as one of the most mutually beneficial examples of voluntary political association ever to be created. If not, then our leaders and ourselves will deserve the diminution in international standing which will inevitably follow.